Museum Studies Borderlands: negotiating curriculum and competencies

Given ICTOP‘s work on revising the curriculum guide using the competencies approach (2000-2008), the author asks whether it is possible to reflect some of the issues and conceptual underpinnings that are at play in the discourse of museology/museum studies as a field of study and pedagogy when designing curriculum when taking the competencies approach. Until we address this question, ICTOP‘s work will have little relevance for the design of syllabi/curriculum by post-secondary institutions. This presentation lays out some of the professional issues underlying and the role for critical reflexive professionalism which can bridge theory and practice, competencies and epistemological knowledge and s how a way forward. Then it moves to address some of the territories where critical discussion is at work that would extend the curriculum discussions of ICTOP, while pointing to some developments that offer a museology of possibilities.

Response to Anwar Tlili‘s paper -Efficiency and social inclusion: implications for the museum profession

I have been asked to respond to Anwar Tlili‘s paper, and I propose to do this in four steps. I will follow Anwar‘s line of arguments closely. I will be dealing in turn withStep no. 1: Profession and ProfessionalizationStep no. 2: Social InclusionStep no. 3: ManagerialismStep no. 4: Museum Education and Training

The National Museum of Mongolia successful strategies and lessons learned

Enkhnaran will discuss issues for professional education raised by museums and tourism companies, which share similar objectives in the sense that each aim to provide their guests with quality information entertainment and a memorable experience. With limited budget capabilities, it is especially important for museums to co-operate with tourist companies in order to attract new and repeat visitors as well as generate important revenue.

Differentiation and coordination within a composite training policy providing efficient support namely to isolated museum professionals

In Portugal, namely in municipal museums, the reduced percentage of museum professionals that have a stable administrative position imposes a high degree of polyvalence allowing them to coordinate, often by themselves, the quotidian activities at the museum(s) they run.

Type specimens of G.E. Post in Beirut and The Natural History Museum, London

The Flora of Syria, Palestine and Sinai, a pioneer Flora of the region, was published in 1896 by George Edward Post (1838–1909). Lesser known are his series of Diagnoses plantarum novarum orientalium, published in the Journal of the Linnean Society Botany, and 10 papers, Plantae Postianae, which appeared in Swiss journals from 1890 to 1900. A greatly expanded second edition of the Flora was prepared by John Edward Dinsmore and published in Beirut in 1932 and 1933. Post's plant collection is part of the Post Herbarium (BEI), with about 63 000 specimens, that has been well maintained, despite civil war and inadequate staffing. This work involves the identification of around 150 types in BEI and BM, and improvement of the accessibility of the specimens. © 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 159, 315–321.

Water-soluble tripeptide A beta(9-11) forms amyloid-like fibrils and exhibits neurotoxicity

A water-soluble, hydrophilic tripeptide GYE, having sequence identity with the N-terminal segment of amyloid peptides A,beta(9-11), upon self-association exhibits amyloid-like fibrils and significant neurotoxicity towards the Neuro2A cell line. However, the tripeptides GFE and GWE, in which the centrally located tyrosine residue has been replaced by phenylalanine or tryptophan, fail to show amyloidogenic behavior and exhibit little or no neurotoxicity.